


1 Out of 365 Days

by thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Angst, Gen, I swear that I love Keith it just doesn't seem like it, Multiverse, Torture, crippling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2020-09-29 14:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20437787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey/pseuds/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey
Summary: What if Keith were sick on the one day it really mattered?What if he wasn't there when Shiro crashed on Earth?What if he was left behind?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yeh, okay, I'm sure no one has a problem with this, but this is gonna be 99% Keith angst with 1% of an actual plot line. Just a warning.

Keith stared in disbelief at the thermometer. 99°. No. No way. Not today, of all days. The day of the arrival the paintings in the cave foretold. He could _not_be sick today. That was _not_an option.

Keith shook himself. It was only a ninety-nine-degree fever. It made things a little more difficult, but it wasn’t something that would stop him completely. He would still find out what the cave pictures were talking about. See aliens maybe. Probably just a comet or a meteor, but… he had to find out for sure.

Keith grabbed his bag of explosives and marched towards his hoverbike. He had to set the distraction explosives up now, just in case the Garrison got there first—which they probably would. He glanced at the thermometer again and snorted. No fever was going to get _him_.

By the time he got back from setting the explosives, he was cold—cold even in the desert heat. And _tired_. He crawled into bed, setting an alarm to wake himself up. He could recover from this. He just needed a little rest. Maybe some chicken soup later, if he had any.

When Keith’s alarm went off three hours later, no number of blankets could quell his shivering, and when he managed to shamble to where he’d left the thermometer, the small screen blinked a calm _104_°at him.

Keith grabbed extra blankets and shuffled to his hoverbike, taking three tries to get on. He backed it away from the house alright, but his head spun at an inopportune time, and he fell off of the hoverbike, landing with a _thump_on the desert sand. He stared up at the sky, disoriented.

“Urgh—nope—I don’t have the _time_to be sick—”

But whether or not he had the time, he _was_sick. And there was nothing he could do to change it. He managed to get back to his bed and collapsed on it, wrapping himself in as many blankets as he could before falling asleep. Deeply asleep.

Unbeknownst to Keith, he rolled over onto the detonator for the remote bombs he’d set. Far away in the desert, they went off, sending up plumes of fire. He had created a distraction. But he wasn’t the one to take advantage of it.

Xxx

“Holy crow!” Lance yelped as a set of explosions went off, “What was that?!”

Garrison members were running off to check, and Pidge grinned. “Now’s our chance! Come on, guys! We can rescue Shiro!”

Lance’s eyes lit up. “Yes! Yes, let’s do it! Absolutely! I didn’t know we were going to do it, but I most definitely want to now that we are!”

“What?!” Hunk yelped, “Are you guys_crazy_?!”

Pidge and Lance were already sliding down towards the tent-structure. Hunk sighed. “We should have snuck into the kitchen,” he grumbled.

Lance ducked as a scientist came at him, and Pidge punched the man with her tiny fist. She shook her hand, yelping, and the scientist looked unimpressed. Lance whacked him on the back of the head with a stool, and the two of them tag-teamed to take out the medtechs while Hunk unbuckled Shiro.

“Go, go, go!” Lance said frantically, taking one of Shiro’s arms.

“What do we do now?!” Pidge fretted, “We can’t exactly take him back to the barracks!”

“I don’t know, I didn’t think that far ahead!” Lance yelped, “We’ll hide out in the desert!”

They carried their load out, dragging him towards the open desert as the Garrison vehicles started to return. Lance looked towards the dunes. It would be easy to hide behind one…

_No_, a thought whispered gently in the back of his mind, _towards the rocks and canyons_.

“Okay,” he muttered.

_Quick_.

Lance led his friends towards the canyons and caves.

“What are you _doing_?” Pidge hissed.

“Just trust me. I’ve got this _feeling_, Pidge, like this is where we need to go. Come on! What could possibly happen?”

(Quick Author’s Note: For convenience’s sake, we’re going to pretend like everything went more or less the same on the Voltron side, except that they can’t form Voltron because, hello, missing a paladin. Don’t ask me how it worked out the same without Keith, I don’t know.)

Xxx

Keith staggered out of bed as a loud explosion shook the desert, like someone was blasting the canyon down. He wobbled out the door and saw dust plume in the desert, with something metallic in it. And then it was gone, going up into the sky and disappearing. Keith gasped at a sudden aching hole in his chest. The energy source. The thing that had told him to search, that had become a constant presence in his life so that he didn’t even realize it was there anymore—it was gone. It had disappeared with the flash of metal in the sky.

Keith sat down with a _whump_. That had been it. That had been the arrival. Something had come to take the energy source away. And he’d missed it. It was gone. Keith managed to wobble back to bed, his fevered dreams of searching for a glowing ball of light that always seemed to be a few feet ahead of him, and spoke to him with Shiro’s voice.

When he woke up, his fever had broken, and he’d been asleep for pretty much the whole day. He immediately got on his hoverbike, shivering, and drove out to the caves. He was feeling dizzy by the time he got there, but he went in anyway, and almost immediately fell into a giant hole. He slid down a tunnel of water, and landed in a pool at the bottom, thoroughly soaked.

“Fantastic,” he croaked, squeezing water out of his hair, “Now I’ll catch a cold on top of it.”

He was in a giant cave. Something had _definitely_been here before, but whatever it was, it was gone now. There was a great, gaping hole in the wall, high up where it would be hard to see from the outside. He clambered up the cave, wishing he’d driven his hoverbike in. He emerged on a cliffside, with a narrow path winding down. He edged carefully along and back to his hoverbike, driving home.

That was it, then. He’d missed it. He’d missed the arrival, he’d lost his only connection to it, and he was stuck here, in the desert, hunting small animals and prickly pears for food. _Forever_. Keith kicked the leg of his makeshift table in a fit of anger, forgetting that the legs were made of cinder blocks. He hopped up and down as his toes exploded with pain.

_Why me_?

Xxx

It was nearly a year before it happened. Keith saw something streaking across the sky, some kind of ship.

_It’s back. Whatever took the energy source is back_. He followed its flight path with his eyes and swore. _And heading right for the Garrison_.

Keith jumped on his hoverbike, going as fast as he could towards the Garrison, hoping to be there when the spacecraft landed. He got there slightly later, and what he saw made his eyes bug out of his head.

Commander Sam Holt.

The commanding officer of the Kerberos mission.

_Shiro’s_mission.

The one that had crashed and burned, killing everyone on board.

The commander of _that_mission.

_Alive_.

“Hey!” he yelled, running across the sand, but Commander Holt didn’t seem to hear him over the Garrison noises. Keith sprinted as fast as he could, but he knew that he wouldn’t make it.

“HEY!” he called desperately, still trying to make it. “Commander! What happened to Shiro?! Is he still alive?! Is he with you?! COMMANDER!” He reached the doors just as they shut behind Commander Holt, and he banged on them uselessly.

“Hey! Is Shiro—Is Shiro—”

Keith crumpled to his knees, still prying at the doors.

“I just want to know if Shiro’s okay,” he whispered.

He’d thought Commander Holt’s return would be a great big media circus. It would be all over the news. But apparently, the only ones that knew about the Commander’s reappearance were him and the Garrison staff.

A few months later, he was in a department store, just trying to find a new pair of jeans—his had been patched and stitched to the greatest extent, and the fact was, he needed a new pair. And then the TV had cut to Commander Holt’s face, and he’d told them everything.

About the secret Garrison projects.

About what had happened on Kerberos.

About the Galra.

About Voltron.

And then, after a few messages from people Keith didn’t recognize, Shiro’s face appeared, and Keith’s legs wobbled and gave out.

He was _alive_.

He was _okay_.

He would _come back_.

“Hey, are you okay?” a clerk asked him, concerned, “Aliens—a lot to handle, am I right? I don’t blame you. Yikes. Scary. And the government’s been _keeping_it from us. It’s like some kind of movie, isn’t it?”

Keith ignored the clerk and rushed out of the store without getting anything. He got on his hoverbike and sped towards the Garrison. “Hey!”

This time, he was let in, and Iverson was glaring down at him. “You.”

Keith winced. Iverson’s eye was still squinty. Whoops. “Um. Yes.”

“What do you want?”

“Sir, I can help, I can still fly, and if we’re going to prepare for an invasion, you’ll need pilots—I still know all of the drills and maneuvers, you wouldn’t even have to train me, I’d like to—”

“No.”

No. No, he needed to be here when Shiro got down, he needed to be here for him. “But I can—”

“You can fly, yes, but you can’t take orders. We need pilots who can work in a team.”

About thirty seconds later, he was outside the Garrison again, blinking. Just like that. He was out.

Two-and-a-half years later, the warships descended from the sky. Huge. Purple. Keith watched them decimate a Garrison squadron, and suddenly felt very, _very_lucky that he hadn’t been accepted by Iverson. The Garrison put a glowing barrier up, and the Galrans couldn’t seem to breach it. The firing stopped. Then the ships headed towards the town.

Keith’s blood chilled. The people in the town would never make it. They’d all be caught! Keith didn’t hesitate. He got on his bike and sped towards the town as the soldiers descended. He flattened a group of robots herding a group of about ten children.

“Get on.”

They all scrambled onto his bike, holding on where they could. The bike was slower, and less maneuverable, but they made it unseen back to the cave.

“Everyone off. There’s a hole in the cave, just jump in, it’s like a waterslide. It won’t hurt, I _promise_. Wait for me to come back. _Don’t leave the cave_.” They nodded fervently, and he left again.

This time, the sentries were ready for him and his bike, but this time, he jumped off, attacking them with his knife, which sliced through the metal like butter. There were five scared adults, and more sentries closing in.

“I can’t make another trip back, so if you’re getting on, _get on_.”

They were on in a flash, and Keith hauled the wheezing hoverbike back to the cave, the bike sliding down the tunnel easily. Several children reunited with parents, and others were comforted by family friends. Keith surveyed them. Fifteen people he had to care for, now. He had some food back at his house that he could get, and from the way some of the adults had been limping, he’d need medical supplies too.

“What’s going on?” one of the adults asked him in a wavery voice, “Is it the aliens that Commander Holt was talking about?”

Keith’s mouth went dry. “I—I guess,” he stammered, “I don’t know any more than you do.”

“But you—you seemed—”

“Like I knew what I was doing?”

“Yes! I thought maybe the Garrison had sent you…”

“No. They didn’t. They got spooked by their squadron getting destroyed and put up the barrier.”

The man blinked at him. “You mean… you just showed up?”

Keith shrugged uncomfortable at the way the adults were staring at him in awe. “I live out on my own in the desert. I saw the Galra heading towards Plaht city, so I…” he trailed off. “What?”

“It’s just… you’re a civilian. But you put your own life in danger to help us.”

Keith shifted uncomfortably. “Well… sure, I guess. I didn’t really think about it.”

They kept staring at him, and he got back on the hoverbike. “As far as I know, the water is safe to drink, but we’ll need food. I’ll be back.”

One of the adults grabbed his leg, preventing him from taking off. “You can’t go out there! They’re still crawling all over the city!”

Keith shook his head. “I won’t go to the city. My house is out in the desert—it’s not safe enough to hide there, but it’ll be safe enough to get supplies from it.”

The trip across the desert was uneventful, but every time he looked back towards Plaht city, he could see the smoking skyscrapers.

He found a messenger-style bag in his house and filled it with all of the non-perishable food things he could find, and he raided the medicine cabinet, putting it all in his bag and driving back across the desert to the cave.

Sam Holt had promised Voltron, but Voltron was nowhere in sight. The only thing that seemed safe was the Garrison, glowing firm and strong. And they wouldn’t let anyone in.

_If this goes on much longer, the Garrison will just be an island of false safety in a sea of death_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go.

Keith eyed the dwindling food supply. With careful rationing, it had lasted them about a week, but with sixteen people, it hadn’t lasted long. “We need more food.”

“We could forage in the desert?” one of the women suggested.

Keith shook his head. “We could supplement that way, but we can’t provide for sixteen people foraging in the desert—not without some major risks.”

One of the small children made a ferocious face. “Once someone dies of starvation, we can eat them!”

“Good idea,” Keith said sarcastically, “Or, we can save ourselves the trouble of starving while we wait for someone to die and just eat _you_now.”

The kid stuck a tongue out at him and ran off to play with the other children. Keith turned to his hoverbike. “I’ll go to the town and get into one of the grocery stores.”

“That’s too dangerous. The city will be crawling with Galra! We can’t lose you!”

Keith shook his head. “They took the people from the city for a reason—they won’t have any reason to still be there.” He shook off a restraining hand. “I’m fast, and I can fight okay. I’ll be fine.”

The trip across the desert felt different, somehow. And then Keith saw the massive slave camp. He took a wide berth around it, wincing at what he could see. Plaht city was decimated, windows broken, buildings crumbling.

Keith shattered the glass of the automatic door that had belonged to a grocery store, and squeezed through, the messenger bag slung over his shoulder. The odor of rotted meat and spoiled fruits and milk assaulted his nose, making it hard to breath without gagging. Keith pulled his scarf up over his nose and made his way to the much safer canned goods. He threw everything he could into the bag, canned beans, fruits, vegetables. Soon the bag was heavy, and he hauled it out, glancing around for Galra.

A drone beeped inquisitively at him, and he threw his knife at it, knocking it out of the sky. He scooped up the knife, got on his hoverbike and made a break for it. He managed to get to his hoverbike before Galra patrols arrived, and he zoomed out into the desert, trying to shake the patrols in the canyons. He twisted and swerved, watching with grim satisfaction as the patrol hover vehicles crashed into rocks. He flipped his bike sideways and squeezed through a narrow canyon. The last two hover vehicles flew up, and started to fire on him.

Keith zipped around in a zig-zag pattern, leaning heavily to steer the bike as laser bullets blasted rocks around him.

There was a loud coughing noise, and the bike shook. Keith looked back in horror. One of the bullets had hit a stabilizer! The bike swerved uncontrollably, smoking and flaming as Keith attempted to gain control. He was too busy looking back at the spreading fire to notice the rock column in front of the bike.

The bike hit the column _hard_, just as the fire hit the fuel cell, and everything exploded into flames.

When Keith regained sense of where he was, he was lying flat on his back, head throbbing and he couldn’t hear anything but ringing in his ears. He rolled over onto his stomach with a groan as his ribs seemed to scrape together, untangling himself from the messenger bag. He threw it to the side. Hopefully the refugees would be able to find it. His bike was a smoldering wreck nearby, but something was dripping into his left eye, and he couldn’t see clearly. Keith swiped at his eye and his hand came away with blood. He stared at it, then gingerly probed his forehead, finding a massive gash and swelling on his temple and forehead.

Keith held one hand to the gash, trying to keep it from bleeding any more. He glanced around. He was _way_too close to the cave! They’d find the refugees! Unless…

Keith staggered in the opposite direction as he heard the whine of Galra hover vehicles. He half-stumbled, half-ran away, trying to put distance between himself and the cave.

The hover vehicles ran him down quickly, and a line shot out, tangling his legs. He fell _hard_, still half-dazed. The Galra robots hauled him up, clapping handcuffs on his wrists and dragging him onto their hover vehicles, locking him to the sides and cutting away the lines around his feet. They drove straight to the slave camps, dragging him by the collar and shoving him to his knees in front of a living Galra with great big chinchilla ears and a huge, metal arm.

“What’s this?”

“Escapee,” one of the robots said in its metallic voice, “We believe he was the one to steal fifteen slaves away.

The Galra grabbed Keith’s chin with his metal arm, turning his head to the side. Keith bit down on a metal prong-finger. It hurt his teeth more than it hurt the Galra, but it felt better than letting him examine him like a horse.

The flesh hand backhanded him across the face, and stars erupted in front of Keith’s vision. He toppled sideways, the side of his face beginning to swell. The Galra grabbed him by the hair and dragged him up. Keith held back yelps of pain as his hair was tugged, determined not to let the Galra have the satisfaction.

“Do you know who I am, little human?”

Keith glared, which was difficult with blood streaming into one eye.

“I am Commander Sendak, Zarkon’s right-hand man and rightful ruler of the Galran Empire. You are _noth_—” Sendak’s attention caught on Keith’s belt, and he seized Keith’s knife. “Where did you get this?”

Keith didn’t answer.

Sendak shook him by the head. “Tell me where you got this! Are you one of those soft-hearted Blade members?”

Keith kept silent, more out of confusion than insolence this time.

Sendak gripped his skull, and Keith involuntarily winced as his finger pressed against the gashed, swollen part of his head. Sendak sneered at him. “Does it hurt there?” He pressed on the swelling harder. “I _said_, does it _hurt_?!”

Keith let out a gasp of pain as his vision went spotty. When it cleared again, he was crumpled on the ground, his hands still handcuffed. A robot grabbed his shirt and used it to pull him along to a room where he was locked to a wall. He sagged in the restraints, unable to sit down. _Stars_. Everything was so _fuzzy_—was this just a bad dream?

What about the refugees?! How would they live?! He’d left them on their own—they wouldn’t even know what had happened to him! Keith’s head dropped to his chest, too tired to stand up straight.

Sendak strode in, grabbing Keith’s hair again and forcing Keith to look him in the eye. “Where did you get the knife?”

That was one thing he didn’t mind answering. “My dad.”

“Where’s your father, then?”

Keith spat at him. “Plaht city graveyard.”

Sendak punched him in the stomach, and the air rushed out of him with a _whoosh_. Keith gasped for air, and Sendak glared coldly. “Spit at me again, and it’ll be your precious knife in your stomach instead of my fist. Tell me where the slaves are.”

“What slaves?” Keith wheezed.

“You were seen stealing sixteen slaves from the gathering. Where are they?”

“Don’t… know what… you’re talking… about.”

Sendak put a hand on his chest and pushed. Keith’s vision went white as his broken ribs scraped and screamed, or maybe that was _him_screaming.

“Where are the slaves?”

“No… slaves…” Keith groaned, “Just… me.”

Sendak’s metal arm whipped out and slammed into Keith’s right knee. Keith yelled as something broke inside. “If you want to keep your kneecaps intact, I suggest you tell me the truth.”

“I… told you…” Keith pushed out through gasps of pain, “It—was just—me.”

Sendak gave him a cold glare and turned to go. “You’ll tell me eventually. I might not be a druid, but I’ve learned a few tricks. You won’t hold out for long.”

Keith lost track of time. He didn’t know how much time had passed between when Sendak left until he’d come back. It could have been hours, or it could have been days. He was too dizzy to tell if he was hungry, but he knew that his throat was hoarse, and he needed water. Blood was still dripping slowly from the gash on his forehead.

“Where are the slaves?”

“Don’t know.”

Sendak held up his metal arm, and a glowing purple ball started to form between the prongs. “Tell me where you brought the slaves.”

“I don’t have them.”

Sendak slammed the ball into Keith’s chest, and everything in Keith’s body seemed to momentarily short out. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t feel his heart beat. Keith gasped like a fish out of water, and then, just as suddenly as it had gone, everything seemed to come back, and Keith sucked in air, his heart beating frantically in his chest. A dull ache spread in his chest. The ball started to glow again.

“I’ve been told that the more you’re hit with this, the longer everything shorts out. And it leaves some nasty burn marks. Is that something you want to risk?”

Keith could feel the heat and blistering on his skin, but he didn’t answer, happy just to be breathing.

“Tell me where you’ve hidden the slaves.”

“Haven’t… hidden… any… slaves.”

The ball slammed into his chest again, and again, everything seemed to shut down. This time it lasted longer, and Keith’s vision started to go black from lack of oxygen. Then he was sucking in air again.

“An easier question, then. The knife. Where did your father get it?”

“I—don’t—really—know—”

Sendak grabbed Keith’s jaw, forcing his mouth open. “I’ve never pulled out any teeth. I’ve been informed, it’s especially painful.”

Keith tried to pull his head away, but Sendak’s metal prong cracked into one of his molars, and blood filled his mouth, making him choke. There was sharp, horrible pain in his gum and jaw where the tooth had been, and Keith gasped, which only made him inhale more blood.

Sendak let him go, and Keith tried to spit out the blood before he choked on it completely. His jaw ached, and his tongue darted to the gap where his molar used to be.

“Where did he get the knife?”

“Dunno…”

Sendak slammed his metal arm into Keith’s chest, and Keith felt his ribs go _crack_. His vision went white, and when he woke up again, Sendak was gone. Keith’s head sagged back down to his chest, and he tried to sleep, which was nearly impossible in the chains.

Everything went in a blur after that. Sometimes Sendak was there, hitting him, pushing on his broken ribs or his injured kneecap, sometimes hitting him with his arm’s special power. Sometimes it was a robot that directly injected him with nutrients to keep him from dying without necessarily giving him food. Most of the time, though, he was alone with the aches and sharp pains that flared up whenever he shifted. But everything started to turn into one big ball of pain, all of the ends tying into a never-ending nightmare

One day, everything seemed to be buzzing. One of the living Galra unlocked Keith and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him roughly through the halls and throwing him into a group of ragged slaves. He staggered into a bigger man and started to fall. The man caught him by the shoulders and steadied him.

“Whoa, there. Careful.”

“Sorry,” Keith muttered, throat hoarse.

The man managed a smile. “That’s alright. Try to keep up. I wouldn’t want to straggle behind if I were you.”

Keith realized they were walking, forced to walk by the sentries surrounding them, and he hobbled along, every step on his injured leg sending shoots of pain through his knee. He stumbled again, and the man caught him, slinging one of his arms over his shoulder.

“I’ve got you.”

“Thank you,” Keith managed, limping along. He wanted to close his eyes and just fall down in the sand, but he knew that the sentries wouldn’t let him.

A woman with a bandanna headband holding back her hair dropped back next to them. “Oh! Poor thing, what happened to you?!” She nudged her neighbor, whispering. “Does anyone have any water?”

The whisper passed around until someone handed back a canteen of water. The woman took off her headband and poured a little water on it, scrubbing gently at Keith’s head. Keith winced as she rubbed the swollen gash.

“What did you do?”

“Crashed a hoverbike,” Keith murmured. Why were they all being so _nice_?

The gash on his head started to bleed again, and the woman wrapped her headband around his head, binding it up like a bandage. “Don’t you worry. Whatever they’ve done to you, we’ll help you. We humans have to stick together. We have a son,” she continued, gesturing to herself and the man helping support him, “He’d be about your age, a bit younger maybe.”

“Where…?”

She pointed up in the sky, and Keith could see a firefight going on. “He’s up there. Fighting for us. Things are going badly to the Galra—that’s probably why they’re taking us away from the slave camps. That’ll be the first place they go.”

Keith’s injured knee wobbled and gave out, and the woman took his other side, making her and her husband into human crutches. She gave Keith a few sips of the water, and passed the canteen back towards its owner with a whispered ‘thank you.’

The sentries rounded all of the slaves up, gathering them into one big huddle.

Then they opened fire.

Someone started screaming, and the man and woman let Keith drop. “Stay still, and they might assume you’re dead. Don’t move.”

Keith didn’t think he could, even if he wanted to. There was still screaming, and then shouts of defiance, and then everything went silent as he lay in the sand. The man came back, his wife at his side. The man was holding a sentry’s gun.

“We need to get moving before they send more out.”

The woman helped Keith up, and they hobbled across the sand, the man keeping a lookout for drones and sentries. Up in the sky, a Galra cruiser started to crash. It was coming right towards them. All three refugees’ eyes doubled in size.

“Run!” The man yelped, dropping the gun and coming back to help Keith and his wife. They were still moving way too slow, and the cruiser was still falling.

The cruiser crashed into the sand, falling apart and sending out a massive shockwave that ripped Keith from his helpers and threw them all to the ground Keith blacked out as the wreckage from the cruiser came down around them.

When he woke up, he couldn’t feel his legs. He tried to push himself up, but then felt a _huge_pressure and sharp, digging pain in his legs. He screamed, dropping back down, and looked behind him, dry heaving between sobs of pain. A huge chunk of wreckage had landed on his lower body, crushing his legs under it.

Nearby, the woman sat up, pushing sheets of metal off of herself. She didn’t look badly injured, just bruised. She ran towards Keith and heaved at the metal on top of him. It didn’t budge.

“Hold on!” She ran and freed her husband, who was stuck awkwardly under a metal beam. Together, they hoisted up the wreckage, slowly, painfully.

“Hurry,” the man panted, “Get out from there!”

Keith army-crawled forward, involuntarily sobbing as his legs dragged painfully on the ground. Once he was free of the wreckage, he dropped down, dizzy from pain and still dry-heaving. Behind him, the wreckage dropped back to the ground, and his rescuers were muttering to each other.

“—his legs!”

“—do we do?”

Keith lifted his head enough to look back at his legs, and what he saw made him start to dry-heave again. They were twisted, broken beyond recognition, and there were giant, bleeding holes where sharp edges of the wreckage had punctured his skin.

“Hey—don’t fall asleep—hold on!” The woman took his hand. “We’re going to try to stop the bleeding. It’s going to hurt. I’m sorry. Just look at me, okay?”

Someone else touched his leg, wrapping it up tightly, and Keith screamed as his leg was jostled and moved. He was squeezing the woman’s hand tightly, and the tips of her fingers were turning different colors. She winced, but didn’t let go, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze.

“You’re doing great,” she assured him, “Focus on me—hey, look at me. What’s your name?”

“K-Keith,” he whimpered, biting his lip so hard he tasted blood as the man bandaged his other leg. His vision whited out again, and when he could see again, both legs were bandaged up. They were still twisted and wrecked, but the holes had been covered up. Blood was already staining the makeshift bandages made of the man’s outer jacket.

Keith’s rescuers were talking in low voices, glancing at him.

“We need to get him to the Garrison.”

“I know.”

“He won’t make it if we don’t—he was already weak to begin with, and he’s lost a lot of bloode.”

“I know, but I’m not sure we should move him. What if we make something worse?”

“We can’t just leave him here!”

“No—I mean, one of could stay behind with him, and the other could run to the Garrison.”

Something else was descending from the sky, like a giant metal coffin. This thing, though, fell in a controlled way, landing rather than crashing. The man and woman exchanged worried glances.

“We need to get somewhere safe,” the woman announced, and her husband nodded. They each grabbed one of Keith’s arms and lifted him completely, hauling his twisted, broken legs up off of the ground.

They were slow. Keith kept falling asleep and waking up every time he was jostled. There was a metal monster in the sky, fighting four lions and a massive ship, and occasionally lasers would come down too close for comfort, or blasts of wind and shockwaves would buffet them, pushing them off-course. His legs scraped across the ground as they tried to climb a sand dune, and Keith yelled, his voice breaking into sobs.

“Just leave me,” he begged, “Just leave me behind—it hurts—please—”

“Not going to happen,” the woman said firmly, no matter how hard Keith pleaded to be left behind.

“There’s refugees,” Keith slurred, “Stuck in a cave… someone needs to help them… they’ll starve…”

“Shhh. We’ll pass the message.”

Keith’s chin dropped to his chest, and his eyes slid closed, his head throbbing, and his legs screaming with every movement. Through the blackness, he could hear voices.

“—re losing him!”

“—most there, we can make it!”

“Hurry!”

“—know it hurts him, but we don’t have a choice, we’ve got to _move_! It’s so close”

“—iece of wreckage—”

“—legs—”

“—can’t risk it—”

“—might not wake up—”

“—perate without it.”

“—slipping away!”

“Clear!”

Somewhere, even the voices stopped, and Keith was falling through darkness alone.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things bout to get real trippy.

Shiro walked briskly next to a med-tech, who was giving him the statistics of the medical wing of the Garrison.

“Most of the patients are recovering well, the other paladins are all out and about—the princess has recovered from the energy loss from transforming the Atlas. Most of the refugees are out of the hospital and back in society, but there’s one… he’s unresponsive to rehabilitation attempts. He’s not actively resisting them, it’s just… he’s not getting better.”

“Physically not getting better or mentally?”

“Mentally mostly, but his mental state affects his healing. We were thinking… we were thinking that perhaps you could help?”

“Me?”

The med-tech nodded. “Yes. He… you’ll see.” He opened a door. “Hey—I’ve got a visitor for you.” The med-tech nodded to Shiro. “Come on in.”

Shiro entered behind him, looking curiously at the patient, who was staring blankly at the wall, and his eyes widened. “Keith!”

His old friend turned his head and stared at him, as if not quite sure he could believe his eyes. “Sh-Shiro?!”

The med-tech left, and Shiro wrapped Keith in a hug. Keith gasped in pain, and Shiro released him immediately. “What’s wrong?”

Keith winced, pressing his crossed arms to his chest and leaning back against the pillows. “Ribs. Broken.”

Shiro sat down on the side of the hospital bed. Keith had a bandage wrapped around his head, and one side of his face was bruised badly. “What happened to you?”

“Sendak.”

Rage filled Shiro. “Sendak did this to you?!”

“Kind of.” Keith’s hand went to his head, fingering the bandage. “Crashed my hoverbike—they blasted it, and it went down in flames. Then they got me.”

“How…?” Shiro gestured to the bruises.

Keith’s lips twitched. “Back-talked Sendak.”

“What did he want with you?”

“I…” Keith trailed off, staring into the distance. “I hid some slaves. Sendak… he wanted to know where they were. And my knife…” He sat up. “Where did he put it?! He took my knife—what did he do with it?”

Shiro put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find it. If he was interested in it, he’d put it somewhere safe. I’ll look. What else do you need?”

Keith glared at the walls. “To get out of here.”

“I’ll take you for a walk, then,” Shiro said cheerfully, “Fresh air will be good for you.”

Keith looked down, and almost immediately, Shiro was aware that he’d said something wrong.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing. I just…”

Keith tugged the blankets away from his legs, and Shiro could help but stare. Keith’s legs were in a pair of braces that kept them straight—because they were twisted and deformed, and parts of them were heavily bandaged.

“I—uh—wreckage from the Galra ships landed on top of me,” he admitted, “I can still walk, kinda. I have these crutch things—they lock onto my arms, and they’re—they’re kind of like canes, actually, but fancier.” He seemed to be talking to fill the silence, which was good, because Shiro was speechless. “Walking kind of hurts, though, and the doctors said it probably would for a really long time, maybe forever. We can still go for a walk, though.”

Suddenly, Keith’s lack of responsivity to the rehabilitation programs made sense. He hadn’t just been disrupted and hurt, he’d been _crippled_.

“Keith…”

Keith grabbed the crutches from where they were leaning against the side of the bed, and swung his legs out of the bed, using the crutches for support. “Paladin, huh? Must be exciting.” He hobbled towards the door, wincing every few steps.

“Keith…”

“And the leader of Voltron, too. I can’t think of anyone better.”

“Keith.” Shiro hadn’t moved from the bed. “I—I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“We didn’t pay attention to the ships we destroyed—and one of them hit you.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“We don’t even have Voltron,” Shiro said, “We let everyone down—it’s just the lions. Four of them. There should be five, but we couldn’t ever find a red paladin, and Sendak had the red lion. There’s no Voltron, only four of the lions. We learned to make it work, but we failed—_I_failed you.”

“Shiro, that’s not your fault!” Keith sighed, hobbling back towards him. “I don’t… can we just take the walk?”

Shiro smiled thinly. “Yeah. Sure. Of course.”

He walked with Keith through the hallway, but they were only about halfway down the hall before Keith’s breathing started getting short.

“Keith? Should we go back?”

Keith shook his head. “No. I can make it. I just… need to take a break.”

“Keith?” A small child ran up to him, throwing his arms around Keith’s waist, nearly knocking him off-balance. “You’re okay!”

Keith gave the kid a small smile. “Yeah. And I see they didn’t eat you when things got rough.”

“We found the food you got, so no one needed to be eaten,” the kid said seriously, “And then in a couple of weeks, the Garrison showed up to save us.”

“Good. Great. Everyone made it out?”

“Yep!” The child bounced away, and Keith continued his steady trek down the hallway, still breathing heavily. Shiro considered picking him up and carrying him the rest of the way, but knew Keith wouldn’t appreciate it.

By the time they made it out of the Garrison, Keith looked like he might topple, so Shiro guided him to a bench. They sat down, Keith rubbing his legs with small gasps of pain.

“Does it hurt you that bad? To walk?”

Keith hesitated, then nodded, looking at his feet. “I want to walk, Shiro. That’s it. But it _hurts_.”

Shiro had always taken being able to walk for granted—but it seemed like Keith would never be able to do it again without a constant, painful reminder of how walking used to be easy.

Keith cleared his throat. “So. What happened to Sendak?”

Shiro felt his hand curl into a fist. “He got away,” he said gruffly, “We’re still trying to find him.”

“We?”

“The other paladins and I. Some of them used to be in your flight group.”

“Yeah?” Keith rubbed his leg.

“Lance? And Hunk?”

Keith paused. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”

There was an indignant scoff from behind them, and Shiro turned to see Lance standing behind them. “Did you need something?”

Lance was too busy giving Keith a betrayed look. “Come _on_! You don’t remember me?!”

Keith squinted at him. “I saw you on the video that Commander Holt broadcasted.”

Lance sniffed and turned to Shiro. “The Garrison is picking up something weird in the atmosphere. They want all of us there.”

Shiro turned to Keith. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to handle this.”

Keith smiled, but there was a tightness, a left-out look to him. “Right. Sure. Go ahead. I can get back to the medical wing by myself.”

Shiro gave a tense smile back. “Yeah. Okay. We’ll talk later, okay?”

Keith gave a distant nod, and Shiro walked off with Lance. “What happened to _him_?”

“A Galra cruiser that _we_blew out of the sky landed on him,” Shiro said sharply.

“Ah, geeze, Shiro, you can’t blame yourself for that!”

“Yes, I can! Maybe if we had Voltron—”

“That isn’t our fault, Shiro! If the red lion doesn’t choose a paladin, we can’t force it to!”

Shiro sighed. “Yeah. I know you’re right. I just… he’s crippled for _life_now, and we can’t do anything about it.”

“Yeah. I know.” Lance toed the ground. “My grandma didn’t make it.”

“Oh—Lance, I’m sorry, I didn’t know—”

“Yeah. I don’t think Hunk’s grandma survived either. Makes sense, they were old, they probably couldn’t take the intensity, but I just… I just wonder if we’d done something different with Lotor, maybe we wouldn’t have taken so long to get back, we wouldn’t have missed three years… I don’t know.”

They reached the meeting room, and Iverson nodded. “Satellites picked up something odd.” He pulled up an image, and Shiro’s eyes bugged out of his head.

“That’s…”

“The Atlas, yes.”

“But the Atlas—”

“Is docked here, yes. Somehow, some way, there’s another IGF Atlas out there. And it’s coming towards us.”

They hurried out, and other Garrison members were outside, watching the other Atlas descend.

Shiro kept pace with Iverson. “About when we leave—who’s going to be coming?”

“Garrison personnel and Voltron Coalition members.”

“What about Keith Kogane?”

“What about him?”

“Is he going to come?”

“No. He’s a civilian. We’re not bringing civilians into the war.”

“But—”

“He acted bravely when the Galra first came down from the sky. He rescued fifteen citizens, and kept them alive despite danger to himself. But the fact is, he was crippled in the process, and taking him into the fight would be dangerous to him and to us. I’m sorry, Shirogane. He’s staying here.”

The other Atlas came down for a landing, and Shiro’s heart skipped a beat as the doors opened. That was _him_. That was someone who looked _exactly_like him, except for the clothing. He stared at the other him, and the other him seemed just as startled.

And behind the other him were the paladins. Lance, Hunk, Pidge—and Shiro was startled to see that Allura missing. Their Allura was right behind him, frowning thoughtfully. The other paladins were wearing Garrison uniforms that had the usual orange replaced with their respective paladin colors.

And standing with them was Keith, his uniform red. The other paladins were looking at their doubles, but the other Keith was scanning the crowd in confusion, a slight frown on his face. Then his eyes widened in shock. Shiro followed his gaze to his Keith, who was gripping his crutches tightly, staring at his other self. Shiro saw and recognized the emotion in his gaze.

_Envy_.

The two Keiths stared at each other, one in surprise and disbelief that he was crippled, and the other with the kind of disbelief that stemmed from the unfairness that there was someone who looked _exactly_like him walking around with uninjured legs.

The other Shiro stepped forward. “We’re here in peace. We just want to talk with your leaders and tell you how and why we’re here.”

Shiro and Iverson stepped forward.

“Where are you from?”

“This might be hard to believe, but we’ve come from another reality. We have our own Atlas, and we’ve won our own war.” The other Shiro nodded to him. “You’re the leader of Voltron?”

Shiro felt a bit of a flush on his cheeks. “We don’t… have Voltron.”

A slight crease on his other self’s forehead, which Shiro knew meant confusion. “You don’t have Voltron? I’m sorry—I just thought, because I saw the black lion—”

“We have _most_of Voltron. We just… don’t have the red lion.” Shiro felt a bit defensive now. Who was this other him to come in and poke at their biggest failings?!

The crease got even deeper, and other-Shiro glanced at Keith. “How many of you left Earth in the blue lion?”

“Four. Lance, Hunk, Pidge and I.”

“What about Keith?”

“What about him?” Shiro’s Lance said, stepping up. “There are four of us. We’ve had to make do with what we’ve got, and defeat the Galra with only four lions. We never had a paladin for the red lion, and we couldn’t get the lion from Sendak because we didn’t have a paladin for it.”

Other-Lance stepped up. “Yeah, that’s because _he_was supposed to be the red paladin.” He raised one finger to point at Keith, whose face went pale, his knuckles white on his crutches.

“Me?”

“Yeah. You. Where were you when Shiro crashed on Earth?”

Keith looked blankly at Shiro.

“Four years ago. October 15th, I think,” Lance piped up.

Keith looked down at his feet. “I was sick. Couldn’t drive my hoverbike.”

“Well, that explains why you never got the red lion! He’s your red paladin!”

Keith looked like he might be sick. “I… No. That’s not possible. Me. Voltron?”

Other-Keith nodded, still looking a little in shock at the fate of his other self. “Figure out where the red lion is, take him along, and then you’ll have Voltron.”

“We don’t know where the red lion _is_,” Shiro told the other-Keith, “We can’t find it, not without getting Sendak to tell us where he put it.”

“You’ll have to use your Keith’s bond to find it, then.”

“But—” Keith started.

“We’ll have to track down Sendak eventually,” Pidge argued, “I say we nab him first. We can at least _try_to get him to tell us what he knows.”

Other-Shiro shook his head. “He won’t tell you. Trust us. You’re just going to have to use Keith’s bond. Your Allura should be able to help.”

“Stop!” Everyone looked towards Keith. “Just stop! I don’t know what kind of sick joke you’re playing, but just… stop. I _can’t_be a paladin.”

“Why not?” other-Lance questioned

Keith looked at him like he was nuts. “Are you _actually_blind?! Look at your Keith, then look at me. See a difference? I _can’t_be the red paladin. Maybe in _your_universe, I am, but I can’t do it here.”

“The lion doesn’t choose based on physical ability,” other-Keith said quietly, “It chooses based on who you are. You’re meant to be the red paladin.”

Keith’s hands were locked on his crutches. “Just _stop it_. Joke’s over. It’s not funny. Stop making fun of me!”

“Keith, the lion _will _choose you. Trust me. I know.”

“JUST STOP!” Keith roared, “I can’t be a paladin! You’ve had your fun poking at me, but it’s time to stop. Just—just leave me alone!” He turned around and hobbled inside. Shiro was the only one who saw the tears in his eyes.

Other-Keith looked at Shiro. “Can you do anything about him? Convince him?”

“How do you know he’s a paladin?”

“It makes sense. All of it adds up, he was just gone when he was supposed to be there.”

“Excuse me, but I have a question,” Allura interrupted, “It seems that everyone here has a double in your world. But I haven’t seen myself here. Where is she?”

Other-Lance saw Allura for the first time, and his eyes filled with tears. Other-Keith cleared his throat.

“She… didn’t make it.”

Allura took a step back. “Oh. You mean—if things have gone mostly the same in our reality—”

“She died as a paladin,” other-Keith said quickly, “You’re not a paladin, so you probably won’t die.”

“Hopefully,” other-Lance muttered. He was staring at Allura as if she were someone he thought he would never see again, which, Shiro supposed, she was.

“We came here through a black hole,” other-Shiro offered desperately. Obviously, this conversation hadn’t gone as he’d planned, and he was hoping to get it back on track.

Both Pidge’s eyes lit up at the same time. “Because stationary black holes have certain points where, theoretically, you can pass through if you have enough speed!”

“Not theoretical anymore,” other-Pidge said smugly.

A grin was breaking across Hunk’s face. “Wow. You hit a black hole just right?”

“Yep.”

Pidge pointed one finger at her doppelganger. “You’re going to tell us about it.”

“I’d love to!”

Other-Shiro looked relatively amused, but he shook his head. “We’re mostly trying to get back home. But we’d be happy to help you get rid of Sendak.”

“And Honerva?”

Other-Shiro seemed to be staring somewhere else, at another world. “She can be reasoned with. She can change sides.”

“Is that what got _your_Allura killed?” Lance asked, moving protectively between Allura and the other paladins, “Trying to _reason_with Honerva?”

Other-Keith stepped forward, an angry look that Shiro knew well plastered on his face. “She was a _hero_,” he hissed, “She sacrificed herself to save _all_realities, including the one that you seem to be currently calling home! So shut up about what you don’t know!”

Everyone fell completely silent, and other-Keith took a step back. “I’m sorry. That was out of line. We’re here to help, but what we said earlier was true. You’ve _got_to recover Voltron.”

Shiro released a deep breath. “You’re _absolutely certain _that he’s the red paladin?”

Other-Keith nodded solemnly. “I’d stake my life on it.”

Shiro gave a short nod. “I guess I’ll go talk to Keith.”

Other-Keith chuckled. “I know he’ll listen to you eventually. But still. Good _luck_. You’re going to need it.”


	4. Chapter 4

Keith fumed as he sat down on his bed, throwing the crutches against the side of the bed. “I _know_I’m crippled,” he hissed, “So why—_why_did they have to poke at me?! I can’t be a paladin, I can’t—I can’t do _anything_.” Tears welled up in his eyes, and he swept them away.

_Don’t cry. No crying. It’s not **allowed**. Crying doesn’t solve anything_.

Keith glared at his legs, which used to be strong. He couldn’t change the past. No one could. But they didn’t have to _rub it in his face_.

The door swung open quietly, and Shiro walked in. “Keith?”

“Why couldn’t they leave me alone?” he shouted, “Why did they have to draw attention to me and my _stupid_legs?!”

“Keith. They _honestly_believe that you’re the red paladin. I had their word. They think it’s you, and they want you to help.”

Keith felt tears burn his eyes again. “Why?! Why did they come to tell me to do something that I _just can’t do_?! I _can’t _be a paladin, Shiro! I _saw_the feeds. You guys don’t just fly, you do groundwork, and you have these amazing weapons, and I—I won’t even have a free hand. I can’t fight like you can!”

“You want to bet on that?”

“Um, yeah, if I want to walk, I kind of have to have _crutches_? I can’t hold a weapon!”

Shiro held up one of his crutches. “Put them on.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Put ‘em on. We’re going for a walk.”

“The doctors don’t want me to walk this much, they’re worried I’ll rip open the stitches—”

“We’re going for a walk, Keith. Come on.” Shiro turned to go.

Keith buckled on the crutches and walked after him, grimacing as every step sent little stabs of pain shooting through his legs. They walked out the back Garrison doors, and then Shiro swept one leg out, knocking Keith to the ground.

Keith landed on his butt, _hard_, and he yelped. That _smarted_. “Shi-ro!”

“What are you going to do about it, Keith?”

Keith couldn’t believe his ears. “_What_?!”

“I said, what are you going to do about it?”

Keith managed to push himself up, but the instant he was back on his feet, Shiro knocked him back over. “Shiro! Stop it!”

“Make me.”

Keith managed to get up again, and this time, Shiro grabbed one of his arms and twisted it behind his back. It didn’t hurt, but it was _embarrassing_and _awkward_. Helpless fury poured through Keith.

“Let _go_!”

“Why? You haven’t given me any _reason_.”

“You shouldn’t need a reason not to_twist my arms behind my back_! Let me go!”

“Nah. I can do this all night, Keith.”

“Well, I _can’t_!”

“Then you better figure out how to make me stop, fast.”

“Fine!”

Keith whacked Shiro in the head with his free crutch. _Hard_. Shiro let go with a yelp, and Keith stumbled away, barely managing to regain his balance. “Are you _nuts_?!”

Shiro rushed towards him. “Think fast.”

Keith thought fast. He also _moved_fast, sticking one of his crutches out to trip Shiro. He fell with the bigger man, but he gave Shiro another good whack with his crutch, this time in the stomach, before scooting backwards on his butt.

“Would you _leave me alone_? What is _wrong_with you?!”

Shiro was laughing between gasping for air. “See?” he panted.

“See _what_?” Keith asked irritably, “All _I_saw was the person who was _supposed_to be my friend _attacking me_like a _lunatic_!”

“No! See, you can still fight! You don’t _need_to be rid of your crutches to fight, because you can use them _to_fight!”

Hope started to sprout in Keith’s chest, but he squashed it before it could blossom. “Shiro, that’s because I was fighting _you_. If you’d _actually_wanted to hurt me, you could have done it. It wouldn’t have been hard.” He pushed himself to his feet, wincing. “I’m going back inside.”

Shiro scrambled to his feet, eyes shining. “You think any of us automatically knew how to fight when handed a weapon? You’d have to train, obviously, but you can _do it_, Keith! I _know_you can!”

A wave of pain swept up from Keith’s legs, and he bit down on his tongue, wobbling and collapsing. The coppery taste of blood filled his mouth from his injured tongue, and his vision went spotty as he waited for the pain to disappear.

“—eith! Keith!” Shiro was kneeling down next to him.

“—y-yeah?” Keith managed.

“You just fell over—are you okay?”

Keith unclenched his fists, wincing. The initial pain had mostly subsided, leaving a residue prickling pain behind. “Y-yeah, I just… had a relapse. I’m okay.” He tried to push himself up, only to feel the pain threaten to return. He sank back down to the ground. “I guess this is why the doctors didn’t want me walking to much,” he said in a hoarse voice, trying for a joke.

Shiro’s forehead crinkled in worry. “This is my fault,” he fretted, “I pushed you too hard—I’m sorry, Keith, I shouldn’t have knocked you over so many times!”

Keith leaned his head against the wall, breathing heavily and trying to focus on anything other than the prickling pain in his legs. “This is why I can’t be a paladin,” he pushed out, “I’ll always be in danger of something like this happening.” He made a move to get up again, but sat down quickly. “Ack—”

Shiro pulled one of Keith’s arms around his shoulder, one hand on his back supporting him. “I’ve got you.”

Shiro hauled him to his hospital bed, where the doctors all started to make a fuss, clucking and scolding him for overexerting himself. Keith closed his eyes, leaning back against his pillows.

“I’m sorry, Shiro, he whispered, “I can’t.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I try to fix the great big plot hole that I made.

“So?”

Shiro shook his head at other-Keith. “He won’t do it. I don’t think it’s the idea of having the lion—I think it’s the idea of the groundwork. You know, fighting, espionage. _That’s _what’s worrying him.”

Other-Keith nodded. “Maybe _I _should talk to him.”

Other-Lance raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Well—I know myself pretty well. I think maybe if I talked to him—”

Lance snorted. “Trust me, Keith, if you ever actually met yourself, you’d be duking it out with him before the day was out.”

“He’s probably right,” other-Hunk said apologetically, “Your personality clashing with a personality exactly like yours except more bitter—probably not a good idea.”

“We’ll just have to stick to the original idea,” Pidge said matter-of-factly, “Find Sendak, capture him, and make him tell us where the lion is.”

“He _won’t_,” other-Keith muttered.

“Do _you _have a better plan?!” Pidge argued.

“Yeah! We drag my other self’s butt out of bed, shake him, and tell him that he needs to stop moping around about his legs and find his lion!”

“Yeah, your Lance is right, you two would be duking it out by the end of the day! That’s a _horrible _idea!”

“It is _not_! I know myself! Call him a quitter, and he’ll jump _right _up!”

“Okay, he is _crippled_! Recently crippled! You could try having a _little _sympathy!”

“A little sympathy isn’t going to get you the red lion!”

“I’m a pragmatist, but that is cold, even for me!”

Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose. “Pidge!”

Both Pidges looked at him, other-Pidge finally looking up from where she was running through Garrison data. “Mm?”

“Not you,” Shiro sighed, “We need to figure out a name system.”

Other-Lance stifled laughter. “Can we call you Sven?”

“You met Sven?” Lance asked incredulously.

“_You _met Sven?!” other-Lance yelped.

“No _wonder _he seemed to recognize us,” Hunk mused.

Other Pidge tapped the top of the desk to get their attention. “Hey! Guys! Okay, so, we’ve got a different reality, right? It’s not the same as yours. But, but, but, but… the data is _nearly identical_. In fact, it’s almost like our history, just with Keith erased, and ‘Voltron’ replaced with ‘four lions of Voltron.’” She tapped the computer for emphasis. “Do you know what the odds of that are? Of Keith being missing and somehow, _some way_, everything else somehow managing to turn out the same?”

“No,” both Shiros said in unison.

“Neither do I! If I plugged it into a calculator, it would give me an error for a number _way_too small to compute! Somehow, when your Shiro went nuts and bananas clone-wars, even without Keith, the result was the same as ours! Now, time to ask yourself, _how is that possible_? Keith in our reality played a _huge _role in what happened to Shiro after he went winter soldier on us! But in _your _reality, there’s a great big gaping _hole _where Keith should be! Shiro, what happened when your clone body went Dai-Lee?”

Shiro frowned, trying to think back. He remembered _something_—a vague memory of a memory, like there _should _be something, but there wasn’t. “I—I don’t know.”

Other-Pidge whirled to face Lance. “Lance. Bonding moment? Punching Sendak in the face?”

Lance frowned. “Um… no… I mean… I kind of know what you’re talking about, but there’s nothing there when I think about it.”

Pidge grinned. “Okay. So, ask yourself—how are our realities the same, up until this point, where Sendak got away instead of dying?”

Other-Keith frowned. “I don’t know, but I think that maybe _you _do.”

Pidge spun her rolling chair in a circle for effect. “The Reboot screwed up!”

Shiro blinked. “I’m sorry, the what?”

“The Reboot! Okay, in our reality, we went to the space _between_reality, which, like, how can you be existing without any _reality_, or is the origin of all realities another reality on which all of the realities except the reality that is the origin exist as glow-threads, but that’s a whole other can of worms that shouldn’t make sense but we just said ‘space magic’ and moved on with life. Anyway, Allura died basically ‘rebooting’ all of the realities, because Honerva messed ‘em up, which I call the Crash! Yeah? Crash? Reboot? Computer stuff? Eh, never mind. Now! Okay! So! Imagine, you guys are just popping along in your little world, you hit the point in your reality where you’re in the blue lion, maybe even at the castle, just living your happy little Keith-less lives, and then suddenly, the Crash occurs—Honerva destroys your reality.”

Other-Pidge smacked her hands together for emphasis. “Boom! Okay, so your reality is totaled. Not there. Bye-bye. Now, as far as I can tell, our reality’s history matches to yours, word-for-word until the point where Keith is sick. Which is a _dumb _way to screw your entire reality over, one of your paladins being sick on the _one _out of _three-hundred-and-sixty-five _days in in the year where you need him to be healthy. Okay, so, fast-forward, Allura starts the Reboot, and your reality gets kick-started. You _think_you picked up right where you left off. But you _didn’t_. Somehow, you had experiences without actually going through them! You follow me?”

“No,” all of them except Pidge said.

Other-Pidge sighed. “Okay, think of it this way—you were all, like, having a shared dream in which you did something. It didn’t _actually _happen, but when you wake up from the dream, and somehow, not only do you all remember it and feel like you lived through it, somehow, it had physical effects on you. Now, dreams have gaps and hazes, right? Well, that’s because Keith wasn’t there, but he _should _have been, according to _our _reality.”

“That doesn’t explain how we ended up the same!”

“It doesn’t seem so, does it? Now, let me explain. Like I said, your reality is nearly identical to ours. So, essentially, when Allura started the Reboot, she had a couple of glitches. The one we definitely know is, when trying to restore _your_reality, she accidentally made it like _ours_, not realizing the difference because of how similar they are! However! You didn’t have Keith! So, what happened? The dream-haze happened, so you snapped out of the dream haze with the exact same experiences as we had, just with that little hazy spot without Keith, which she figured would now be fixed because you’re on Earth! With Keith! She’s not messing with the reality trying to make it like _her _reality anymore! So you can just grab the red lion, and everything can go hunky-dory, she’s not screwing with your reality anymore because it will be ‘fixed’ now that Keith is here. In fact, the _only _one in this reality with reliable memories and real experiences will _be_Keith, since he exists as the outlying variable, the real Keith who was supposed to be somewhere else but wasn’t, and therefore is _completely _outside of the dream-haze!” Pidge beamed. “Hooray, right? We figured it out? Good, huh?”

Shiro stepped back, his mind reeling. “So you’re saying—everything that happened after we blasted off in the lion until we got to Earth—none of it was real?!”

“Well—urgh, that sounds not good, doesn’t it? Let’s put it this way: it was real, but it wasn’t at the same time—kind of like how we could have an existence outside of reality, and how there was maybe a reality with other realities on it? It’s a bit of a blurp, big mystery that we can’t really solve, so I’m just going to throw my hands into the air and yell ‘space magic’ to fix it.” She inhaled. “Okay, while all of this is very fascinating, it doesn’t solve our current problem. You know, how we’re going to get you a red lion.”

“We start with Sendak,” Shiro declared, “Even if he won’t tell us where the red lion is, we need to take him out eventually anyway, and while we do that, we can give Keith time to think over the idea of being a paladin and let him get used to the idea.”

Other-Shiro nodded. “Any idea where he might be?”

Shiro frowned. “He disappeared—but in the desert…” he snapped his fingers. “The tunnels! The ones to the Garrison are collapsed, so we wouldn’t know he was there!”

“How fast can we get down there?”

Shiro grinned. “How does now sound?”

They all-but stampeded down into the tunnels and split into their respective paladin groups. Shiro with other-Keith (black paladins). Pidge with other-Pidge (green paladins), Hunk with other-Hunk (yellow paladins). Other-Shiro and Lance paired up, and other-Lance paired with Allura (Shiro worried about that, because other-Lance kept looking at Allura as if she were a ghost).

Shiro and other-Keith walked in silence, the only sound the tap of their boots on the concrete floors. Other-Keith was the first to break the silence.

“So. You really think he’s down here?”

Shiro shrugged. “It’s the one place that we have to manually scan—we can’t just do a B.L.I.M.P scan down here, so it’s a logical place to hide.”

“Correct,” Sendak’s voice growled, “But all you’ve done is followed a spider back to his den.”

Shiro and Other-Keith glanced at each other. _On three_, Shiro mouthed, and held up his hand. One finger. Two fingers. Three fingers.

Other-Keith kicked open the door.

Xxx

“Lance?” Allura eyed the alternate Lance with concern. “Lance, are you alright?”

He blinked his cloudy blue eyes. “Hm? Yeah. Why?”

“Because you’re staring at me. Do I have something on my face?”

“No! No, your face is fine—better than fine, it’s great, I—sorry.”

Allura stopped dead in the hallway, putting a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Lance. I’m not her.”

Lance looked away. “I know.”

“Do you? Because I think that when you look at me, all you see is her.”

“It’s just—well—you’re _identical_, and you _act _a lot like her, too, and I just… when I look at you, part of me hopes that she’s come back, that her dying was just… temporary, I guess.”

“She was something special to you?”

Lance stared at the ground. “Yeah. She was.”

Allura sighed. “Lance. I cannot be her. Nor would I want to _try _to be her. She sounds like an amazing person, and I admire her for the sacrifice she made for us all, but no matter how similar we are, I am not her.” On impulse, she gave him a hug. He looked like he needed one. “She was lucky to have you. I’m sorry that you lost her, but I am not sorry that I cannot replace her. You cannot bring her back, but you _can _honor her memory.”

He smiled, his blue eyes finally unclouded. “Yeah. You’re right. I know.”

She smiled back. “Good.”

Somewhere to the left of them, they heard a rumble and shouts. Lance and Allura gave each other a glance. “Sendak!”

A cry of pain sounded, and Allura’s eyes doubled in size.

“That’s Shiro!”

Xxx

Keith hissed as he walked across a rehabilitation room, using the railings instead of his crutches, under the watchful eye of a nurse. After the last fiasco, the doctor had insisted that he not be walking around without the supervision of medical personnel.

“That’s enough for now,” the nurse said firmly, “You need a break.”

Keith nodded and sat on a bench, rubbing his protesting legs with a glare. And Shiro thought he could be a _paladin_.

There was a commotion outside, and Keith looked out the window. Oh. It looked like the paladins were back. But why were they in the infirmary? Keith started to buckle on one of his crutches, ready to go outside.

And then the doctors and nurses were wheeling a gurney down the hall. Keith squinted, trying to see who it was, and his heart stopped.

_Shiro_.

Keith half-ran, half-hobbled to the door, not bothering with his other crutch, stumbling over his own feet.

_Is he going to be okay, is it my fault, did I do this, would he have been okay if I were there as a paladin, is he going to be okay, should I have been there, is this my fault, **is he going to be okay**_ **?!**

“Shiro!” he called, trying to push through the crowd, half-falling, stumbling all over the place, unbalanced with only one crutch. “Let me _through_!”

Elbows pushed him to the side, and he was jostled around, both breathing and moving hard. He stumbled to the side, crashing into a wall.

“Shiro! SHIRO!” The gurney was well out of sight now, but Keith kept pushing, stumbling and falling, scrambling back up to his feet.

_Is it my fault, should I have been there, I should have been there, **this is all my fault**_!

“_SHIRO_!” Keith tripped over someone else’s foot and started to fall, even as tears started to fall from his eyes. Someone grabbed him, hauling him up.

“Hey—whoa—Keith—_Keith_!”

At the familiar voice, Keith turned, hoping beyond hope, and there he was, Shiro, perfectly fine. His knees went weak with relief, and he collapsed against Shiro, who pulled him away from the crowd, where they could hear each other.

“You’re okay—I saw—and I thought—I thought—I was worried—” Keith was rambling, dizzy from relief, leaning on Shiro for support.

“Hey. I’m okay. I’m okay. Sendak set up a bomb trap, and other-Shiro walked right into it. Sendak tricked us, he had a com set up so we followed his voice, but he wasn’t there. Lance got out okay, but other-Shiro got caught in the explosion.”

“I’ll be a paladin,” Keith said in a rush, his tongue tripping over itself to get the words out, “I’ll be the red paladin, I’ll _do _it, if I can bond with the lion, I’ll be your red paladin, if you want me.”

Shiro blinked in surprise. “Really? You—okay! Yes, okay, good. Good. Why now, though?”

_Because I can’t lose anything else_.

“I just—if you need me, I want to help. I want to help free the universe.”

_I won’t **ever **be worrying in the dark again_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Pidge's explanation of what happened left you more confused than you were before, then I have succeeded as an author.
> 
> In premature answer to your questions about how the heck any of this worked, same answer that the Voltron writers gave. 🤷 Space magic.


	6. Chapter 6

“Do you feel anything? Anything at all?”

Keith opened his eyes, and shook his head with a sigh. “Nothing.”

Allura took her hand off of his. “I’m sorry, I can only do so much. If you can’t feel the red lion, then I can’t make you.”

“What if I’m _not _the red paladin? What if other-Keith is wrong?”

“Then we’ll be in the same spot we were before we had you. We made it work before, we’ll make it work again.” Allura patted his hand. “It might take time, but I think that other-Keith is right. You _feel _like a paladin. Like a piece that was missing.”

Lance skidded into the room. “Guys, Pidge tracked down the signal from Sendak’s com, we know where he is! He’s in the tunnels, which is why the connection worked, and Pidge tracked down his exact whereabouts! We’ve got to get moving!”

Allura and Keith raced after him—well, Allura raced, and Keith moved as fast as he could. They were down in the tunnels quickly, and they paired up quickly.

“Remember,” Shiro instructed, “Sendak is tricky. If you see him, wait for backup. Do _not _engage him.”

They all nodded and split up, each team planning to come in from a different angle.

“Hurry _up_,” other-Lance groaned as they moved painfully slowly through the hallways.

“I’m moving as fast as I can,” Keith growled through gritted teeth, “Be patient.”

“Be patient? It’s not like I _asked _to get paired up with a crippled version of my black paladin!”

Something snapped. “Well, it’s not like _I _asked for a great big honking Galra cruiser to come crashing out of the sky and land on top of me, but that’s what happened!”

Other-Lance went quiet. “Is that what happened to you?”

“Yes,” Keith replied miserably, “I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just keep going.” He hobbled on, ignoring the pitying glances other-Lance was sending his way. He didn’t need other-Lance’s sympathy. He just wanted to get Sendak, and then maybe find his lion.

He felt a warm feeling spread in his chest, accompanied by a growl in his head. He stood up straight.

“Did you hear something?”

Other-Lance shook his head. “No.”

“I thought I heard… never mind.”

“What is it?”

“Nothing.”

“Dude. What was it?”

“Like—a growl? But inside my head.”

Other-Lance grinned. “It’s your lion! It’s calling to you!”

“Really?”

“Yes! Really! We’ve got to find it! Go on, follow your feelings!”

“What about Sendak?”

“Our first priority is getting Voltron. Sendak comes second. Go, go, go!”

Keith backed away a little, flustered. “Okay!” He followed the source of the growl, eventually closing his eyes and feeling the energy.

“Well, look who stopped by.”

Keith stopped as if he’d hit a brick wall. Other-Lance did too. “Sendak!”

“Which one are you, then?” Sendak shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.” His arm powered up, and Keith threw himself to the side as it fired, barely missing him. Sendak scooped him up with one hand and threw him to the side, breaking one of his crutches with one fluid move, turning to fire at other Lance, who dodged to the side, firing back.

Sendak’s arm rocketed out, hitting the other red paladin, _hard_. Lance crashed into a wall and collapsed. Sendak advanced on him, his arm glowing for the kill.

Keith staggered to his feet and lunged forward, driving his jaggedly broken crutch at the spot where Sendak’s metal arm met his flesh. Sendak screeched, and grabbed Keith by the throat, slamming him into the wall, pulling him away and then doing it again. Keith’s vision flickered in and out of focus, his head spinning.

Sendak sneered. “Red paladin? You? Come with me, red paladin, I have something to show you!”

Sendak grabbed Keith by the hair and dragged him through the hallways. Keith’s vision flickered out completely, and when he woke up again, he was being thrown on the floor in front of a great, mechanical beast. The red lion.

“I’ve taken down its particle barrier. I’ve managed to drain its quintessence, so the only thing left is to turn it into scrap metal. And I’ll do it after I kill _you_.”

Sendak stomped towards Keith, and Keith did the first thing he thought of.

He tripped the behemoth warrior with his remaining crutch, and then hit him on the head with it. _Wow, Shiro was right_.

“No. You’re—not—hurting—that—lion!”

Keith struggled up to his feet, trying his hardest to look menacing. Sendak looked at him, then laughed. Then the laugh cut off with an abrupt growl.

“You cannot defeat me.” It wasn’t a threat; it wasn’t a boast. It was just a statement.

Sendak’s arm rocketed into Keith’s chest, reawakening the pain in his still-healing ribs. Sendak grabbed his other crutch and snapped it with one hand.

“Out of _all _of the creatures the red lion would choose for its paladin, it would choose _you_? You’re pathetic. You can’t even _stand_!”

Keith tried to push himself up using the wall, but Sendak swept his legs out from under him. “You’re not worthy to even _think _about being the red paladin!”

Sendak lifted Keith by the throat. Keith kicked at his hand and face, but his movements got weaker and weaker as his lungs screamed for oxygen. A shot rang out, and Sendak dropped Keith like a hot potato. Keith crashed to the ground, gasping in air and attempting to crawl away.

Other-Lance stood in the doorway, his gun at the ready. “Surrender. Now. You’ve got nowhere to run.”

Sendak’s hand lashed out and scored a line of deep cuts along Keith’s back before his big, booted foot came down on top of Keith, pinning him to the floor. The metal hand rested on Keith’s head, for now a light pressure. “_You _surrender. Or else I’ll bash his head in.”

Other-Lance hesitated, his hand starting to fall down, ready to drop his gun.

Helpless rage filled Keith. Sendak would kill other-Lance, and then he’d kill Keith, and then he’d destroy the red lion.

“JUST SHOOT HIM!” he yelled, “DO IT NOW! DON’T WORRY ABOUT ME!”

Sendak hit him in the jaw, and Keith felt something go _crack_, and his jaw begin to swell, but the damage was done. Other-Lance’s gun was at the ready.

“Keith. Are you sure about this?”

Keith opened his mouth to speak, fighting unconsciousness and ignoring how it hurt his jaw. “He can’t. Get. The lion. Shoot him, no matter what he does to me!”

He thought he heard a faint growl, but his head was throbbing and spinning too much to tell for sure. Besides, the lion was off, right?

The gun went off. The lion pounced. Sendak’s hand came down, moving fast.

The lion moved faster.

A massive metal paw swiped Sendak to the side before his metal hand could crush Keith’s skull. Keith’s vision went black as a pair of jaws gently closed around him, and a warm purring surrounded him.

Xxx

Shiro stopped in the middle of a hallway. “Do you hear something?”

Other-Keith stopped as well. “Footsteps. Too light to be Sendak.”

Lance came skidding into view, going right for other-Keith. Not Shiro’s Lance, then. “Sendak,” other-Lance panted, “Ambush, bad.”

Shiro grabbed him by the shoulders. “Where’s Keith?! _My _Keith?”

“Hurt. Had to get you. Found the red lion. Going _nuts_.”

“Sendak?”

“Dead, I think. The red lion got him pretty good, but I didn’t check for vitals. Come on, the red lion is going _berserk_! It won’t let me near it!”

“Show us. Now.”

Lance nodded and ran back the way he’d come, this time with the two black paladins following him.

_Stars, I pushed him too hard. Now he’s gotten hurt, and it’s all my fault_!

He heard the lion roaring before he could see it, and when he came into view, the red lion _immediately _took a shot at him.

“HEY!” Other-Keith yelled, “RED, YOU STOP THAT! BEHAVE! WE’RE NOT ENEMIES!”

The red lion roared at him, and took another shot.

“Gah!” Other-Keith rolled to the side. “What the quiznak, red?!”

“Her paladin is hurt,” other-Lance said quietly, “She’s scared.”

Shiro’s heart caught in his chest. “How badly was he hurt?!”

Other-Lance avoided his gaze. “He wasn’t looking too good when the red lion scooped him up.”

Shiro approached the red lion cautiously, his heart beating at a frantic tempo in his chest. “Red lion!” he called. The red lion stopped and cocked its mechanical head at him. “I’m the black paladin! Keith is my friend. I don’t want to hurt him. I can help him, but you need to let me in!”

The red lion considered him, and Shiro held his breath, hoping it wouldn’t decide to fire at him. Then it bent down, opening its mouth.

Shiro paused a moment to put one hand on the red lion’s metal surface. “Thank you,” he said quietly, and ran inside. The lights flickered on as he entered, and he found Keith on the floor, his breathing a shallow rasp. His jaw was grotesquely swollen and discolored, and lacerations on his back were bleeding heavily. It looked like some of the older wounds on his legs had opened up again too, adding to the blood.

Shiro scooped Keith up. “I’m sorry,” he gasped, carrying the red paladin out the door, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, this is my fault, I’m sorry, please don’t die on me, Keith, please, hang in there, you’re going to be okay, just hang on.”

He was almost to the door when a shuddering rasp came from another corner. Sendak was still alive, somehow, and his arm was priming for one last shot. Right at Keith. Shiro dropped him as the shot fired, not willing to let him get shot. He’d rather get shot himself than let Keith get hurt anymore.

Keith must have woken up as Shiro dropped him, because he grabbed onto Shiro, hauling himself up, gasping with pain as he did so.

And hauling himself right into the path of the laser bullet. It hit him in the ribs with a _thunk_, and Keith blinked. “O-okay,” he murmured, and fell. Sendak fell as well, finally dead. Shiro caught Keith before he could hit the floor and lowered him gently down. The red lion roared in pain.

“Keith?”

Keith was limp in Shiro’s arms, not moving in the slightest.

“Keith!” Shiro cradled his friend’s body in his arms, a sob building up in his throat. “No. No, no, no, this wasn’t supposed to happen, this wasn’t—”

Other-Keith knelt down next to him, his armor bleeping quietly. Other-Keith stared at a readout above his wrist armor, then calmly shut it down.

“He’s not dead.”

Shiro looked up at him, barely daring to hope. “He’s—you mean—”

“He’s still alive. Barely, but he can be saved. Come on, Shiro, let’s go, you’ve got to move fast!”

Shiro scooped Keith up, bolting for the way back to the Garrison. Keith was alive. He could make it. Other-Keith ran on ahead to get the doctors, and they were waiting to take Keith when Shiro made it topside.

Shiro paced anxiously outside, occasionally glancing at other-Shiro, who they were keeping under sedatives until his wounds had a little more time to heal. Hours passed. The other paladins came and went as they got back from the tunnels.

Finally, _finally_, the door opened, and one of the doctors came out. “He’s going to make it,” was all he said.

Shiro’s knees went weak and he collapsed. He was going to make it. _He was going to make it_.

“He’s still in a very critical state, and he won’t be able to have any visitors for a while, but he should improve.”

Shiro barely heard what the doctor said over the roar of blood in his ears. Keith was going to make it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, done hurting Keith now.


	7. Chapter 7

Keith felt heavy. Too heavy to move. He could hear a bleeping outside of himself, and he slowly forced his eyes open. His jaw felt like it was tied shut, swollen and uncomfortable. His eyes slid to the side, and he could see Shiro in a chair, asleep.

The door opened, and Pidge walked through. “Shiro!”

Shiro snapped awake. “Mm? Sorry, what is it, Pidge?”

“The other paladins. The other Pidge and I think we’ve figured out how to get them back home!”

“Oh—that’s great!”

Pidge’s eyes slid to Keith, and he shut his eyes before she realized he was awake. “Do you think he’ll be ready to travel soon?”

“I—I don’t know. He… he’s not in great shape. I think that the doctors want to keep him here.”

“How long?”

“Indefinitely. He wasn’t fully recovered from the cruiser crashing onto him, and this on top of it…”

“But he’s our red paladin! We need him!”

“I know. Thank you for keeping me updated, Pidge.”

The door opened and closed, and Shiro’s chair squeaked. Footsteps echoed closer to Keith, and he felt a gentle hand on his head.

“Oh, Keith.”

Keith opened his eyes, feeling guilty about deceiving Shiro. “Shiro,” he said, or tried to, but his jaw wasn’t working, so it just came out a garbled mess. Shiro’s gaze snapped to his face.

“Keith! You’re awake! Thank the stars, I—I wasn’t sure—the doctors didn’t know…”

Keith blinked questioningly at him.

“They didn’t know if you’d wake up. They were worried that you’d go into a coma.”

Keith’s hand moved like it was coming through molasses, heavy and slow, but he managed to bring it close to his jaw. What was _wrong _with it?

Shiro caught his hand and brought it down. “Keith. Just try to stay still. Sendak…” Shiro let out a shaky breath. “Sendak really did a number on you. I’m sorry. I should have been there.”

A wave of tangled, guilty emotions ran through Keith. He didn’t want Shiro to blame himself! He’d run off after his feelings instead of sticking to the plan! _He _was the one to blame, not Shiro!

The door opened again, and other-Keith walked in. He held out a knife. _Keith’s _knife. “We found it on Sendak’s corpse. It’s yours, isn’t it.”

It wasn’t really a question, but Keith gave a short nod anyway.

Other-Keith handed him the knife, and then pulled out an identical knife. “Your mom’s knife, right?”

Keith gave another nod.

Other-Keith sucked in a deep breath. “There’s not really an easy way to tell you this. But if this is your knife, and if it belonged to your mother…” He sucked in another breath. “You’re Galra.”

The world spun and tilted beneath Keith. Galra? Like Sendak? No! That wasn’t possible! The Galra had crippled him, had tortured him, had enslaved people—he _couldn’t _be a Galra!”

“Not full Galra,” other-Keith said quickly, “Your mother was Galra, but your father was human. But Keith—listen, not all of them are bad!”

Keith wished his jaw would work so that he could talk, that he could scream what he was thinking: how could _any _of them be good?! They were all twisted, evil, destructive! They’d ruined his life!

“It’s true,” Shiro said quietly, “We’ve been working with a group of good Galra called the Blade of Marmora.” He frowned. “At least I _think _we have. Little hazy.”

Keith shook his head. No. Even if by some miracle, some of the Galra weren’t evil, he _couldn’t _be one of them.

Was that why Sendak had been interested in the knife? Because he’d wanted to turn Keith to the dark side? Make him into a soldier?

Other-Keith shrugged and went for the door. Keith really, _really _wanted to scream. Was he _really _going to just _walk away_?! After dropping a bombshell like that?! Maybe _he’d _had time to get used to the idea that he was one of the enemy, but _Keith _hadn’t!

Allura was standing outside of the door. “He’s _Galra_?!” she asked incredulously.

“Uh-oh, here we go again,” other-Keith muttered under his breath. “Hey. He _is _trustworthy. He’s your red paladin. Deal with it. Honerva is your enemy now, anyway. An _Altean_.” A brief smile crossed other-Keith’s face. “In fact, seeing as how _you’re _Altean, they should be treating _you _with suspicion.”

He walked off, looking very pleased with himself, and Allura sputtered. “Well! I never!” She turned on her heel and marched away, muttering something about “why should we trust _his _word on it, apparently _he’s _Galra as well!”

Shiro looked at Keith, wincing. “Well. This ought to be fun.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith wants to save everyone, no matter their race. He doesn't understand why Allura feels differently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is this? An update? I'm still alive?

Keith was staring at the ceiling, bored out of his skull. He couldn’t sleep, and it was nighttime. No one was up, and he was alone. He couldn’t even focus on anything, because one thought kept dominating his mind.

_I’m Galra_.

_My mother was a Galra_.

_I’m **Galra**_.

Keith swung his legs out of the hospital bed, gasping in pain as his back screamed, and his ribs ached with pain. He grabbed his crutches, managing a few feet down the hallway before he leaned against the wall, his breath short.

“Ow,” he whimpered, but ‘ow’ didn’t even _begin _to cover it. Why had he thought this was a good idea?

There was a faint growl in his mind, and a smile twitched its way onto his face. Oh, that was right. He had a large, mechanical lion and had only gotten to know it for about .5 seconds before he’d passed out.

By the time Keith made it to the tunnels, he was feeling ready to pass out, but he managed to get to the lion. It purred and bent down, opening its jaws. Keith stumbled in, and a warmth spread through him. He curled up on the pilot’s seat, exhausted, and the lion continued purring. Keith closed his eyes, curling further into the seat. He couldn’t feel any other pain. Red didn’t care if he was Galra. Red didn’t even know the difference between a Galra and a human. To Red, there was only her paladin and not-her-paladins. And Keith, lucky him, fell into the her-paladin category. Why worry about anything else?

Xxx

Shiro paced around the room, the other paladins watching. “What do you _mean_, he’s not there?!”

The doctor shrugged helplessly. “He’s not there! He was there last night, but when we came in this morning, he was gone!”

“Well, where did he _go_?!”

“I don’t know, sir. He can’t have gone far.”

“He’s not a stray dog,” Shiro snapped.

“I beg to differ,” Lance coughed.

Shiro ignored him. “We’ve got to find him.”

The doctor frowned. “He’s out of any huge danger—I’d rather have him under supervision, but if he can’t be found right away, he won’t die.”

Shiro sighed, and handed him a note. “I found this under my door today.”

_Voltron has turned traitor, letting Galra onto Earth. An example must be made. If given the choice, we’d rather have only four lions than a Galran Voltron_.

“Oh,” the doctor said quietly.

Shiro rubbed his temples. “I knew that others would be unhappy with the Blade coming to Earth, but…” he sighed. “We need to find Keith. There’s a threat on him. The good thing is, whoever wrote this note won’t know where he is, either. But we have to find him before they do. Otherwise…” he trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence.

“Well, then,” Pidge said firmly, “We won’t find him first if we don’t get moving.”

Xxx

Keith yawned, rubbing at his eyes and wincing as he stretched his sore jaw. He tried to get up, and everything screamed at him. He fell back into the chair. He wasn’t going anywhere. He pushed a button on the dash, wondering where the com screen was.

Allura had seemed upset that he was Galra. Understandable. But… did the rest of the team feel that way? Did they feel like he shouldn’t be a part of the team?

“Probably,” he muttered. His voice echoed in the empty cockpit.

What if they didn’t want him? What if they kicked him out? What if they tried to keep him away from Red?

A rumbling assurance came from Red. She wouldn’t let them do that.

“Thanks.” But _Allura_…

Allura didn’t matter, Red asserted scornfully. As it turned out, she had a third way of classifying people: other paladins. Keith was her paladin. Other paladins were better than not-her-paladin but not as good as her paladin. Allura wasn’t her paladin _or_another paladin, so what she thought had absolutely no bearing on Voltron.

Keith pressed another button, and a com screen lit up. “Oh!”

Shiro’s face showed up. “Keith! Where are you?”

“Lion.”

“Okay. We got a note—someone wants to bump you off.”

A chill went down Keith’s spine. “Should I come to you?” The swelling in his jaw made the words harder to say, but not as hard as it had been yesterday.

“No. Stay where you are. We’ll come to you. Hunk, Lance and Pidge are on their way. I’m on the other side of the Garrison, but I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

Keith nodded, and there was a thump from outside. “Um, Shiro…”

“Yeah?”

“There’s someone outside.”

“Don’t open the door, Keith. Don’t open it for anyone other than the other paladins, okay?”

“Okay.” Keith shut the coms off, staying firmly in his chair.

There was a knocking on the outside of the lion. “Keith?”

Keith didn’t say anything.

“Keith, I know you’re in there. Shiro’s worried. Come on, we need to get you back to the infirmary.”

Keith bit his lip. The voice was soothing, reassuring. It _sounded _like the truth. But Shiro had told him not to open the door.

“Keith? Are you okay in there? Can you talk? How badly are you hurt?”

Keith squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block away the voice. Whoever it was sounded so _concerned_, like all they really wanted was to help him.

“Hey! What are you doing near that lion?”

Keith had never thought he’d be relieved to hear Lance’s voice, but the moment had come.

“The red paladin is in there. I knew you would be concerned, so—”

“Thanks, but we’ve got this,” Pidge’s voice said firmly, “You can go, now.”

“Thank you!” Hunk said in a desperately-polite voice, “You’re a big help!”

Lance knocked on the lion’s door. “Knock, knock!”

“Who’s there?” Keith called.

“Uh… Lance?”

“Lance who?”

“Lance Mc—you’re screwing with me. Open up the door, dingbat!”

“You’re 100% okay with me being Galra?”

“Wha—I mean, yeah? Whatever? Who cares? Red chose you to be her paladin and we need Voltron, so that’s all that really matters? Let us in, or Shiro will get mad at _all_of us!”

_Red_?

The door opened, and the green, yellow and blue paladins strode in. “Can you walk?” Hunk asked.

A flash of irritation swept over Keith. He wasn’t a _baby_. “Yeah,” he said crossly, grabbing his crutches and pushing himself up. He wobbled a little, and his muscles threatened him with seizing up and making him collapse, but he was upright. He hobbled to the door, hissing as his back and ribs flared up. The stabbing shoots of pain that came from every step he took were dwarfed by the enormous tearing feeling from his ribs and back.

His legs faltered, and he started to fall. Hunk caught him. “Hey—take it easy.”

“I saw you,” Keith mumbled. His jaw didn’t like talking, it felt like it was going to _fall off_, but the words flowed out of his mouth like water. “I saw you leave Earth in the blue lion. I knew that something was coming, but I was sick, and I _missed _it, and I saw you leave, and I just wanted to go to _space_and find out what was _happening_, and I got left behind.”

“Okay, can you tell us this later? You need to go back to the infirmary.”

“And now I _should_be going to space, and I _should _be going with you, but Allura doesn’t like me, and _she_flies the Atlas, so what if she leaves me behind?!”

Lance blinked. “Yikes. I got used to the Keith from the other dimension. You are a _lot_more insecure. And talkative.”

Hunk frowned, propelling them towards the door. “Why wouldn’t Allura like you?”

Keith’s head bobbed in despair. “Because I’m _Galra_.”

“Guys, on your six,” Pidge muttered.

Keith glanced behind him. Someone was following them. Someone with a gun. Quiznak.

Hunk and Lance glanced behind them and continued acting like nothing was wrong.

“Allura’s had time to get used to the idea of there being good Galra,” Hunk assured Keith cheerfully, “At least—I think so. Ugh. Other-Pidge’s explanation of everything somehow made it worse.”

Lance rubbed his forehead. “Yeah, tell me about it.”

Hunk and Lance glanced at each other, and then pushed Keith, whirling around as he stumbled forward and out the door. Pidge skidded after Keith, slamming the door shut. “Go, go, go!” she yelped, “Run back to the Garrison! We’ll be fine!”

Keith hobbled away as fast as possible through the tunnels, wincing. He stumbled out, falling on top of someone else, his twisted legs finally giving out. “Sorry!”

Allura pushed him away letting him fall. “What is _wrong _with you?!”

Keith rubbed his legs. “Sorry—other paladins—tunnels—crazy gunman.”

Allura’s eyes widened. “The other paladins—”

“They told me they’d be fine. It’s _me _he’s after, not them.”

“Ah, yes, because you’re _Galra_,” Allura spat.

Keith scrambled to his feet, legs shaking, back screaming. “Yeah.”

The tunnels burst open, a wild-eyed gunman tearing out.

“Gah! Caught you!”

“Allura, run!” Keith swung his crutch, but it was grabbed and yanked, pulling him off-balance. The gunman pressed the barrel of his gun to Keith’s head, and Keith closed his eyes, bracing himself for the gunshot.

It never came. Keith opened his eyes to see Allura judo-flipping the man across the room. Someone else was coming from the Garrison, his eyes bright with murder.

“Into the tunnels,” Allura ordered.

Keith obeyed, hobbling as fast as he could. Allura slammed the tunnel doors shut behind them, but the gunman was pounding trying to get them open.

“Go, go, go!”

Keith missed a step, and he fell, yelping, to the ground. Allura didn’t miss a beat. She grabbed him and threw him over her shoulder, fireman-carrying him through the tunnels until they couldn’t hear the sounds of the Garrison anymore. She pulled him into a side room and set him down. Keith slid down the wall with a sigh, rubbing his legs.

“Thank you.”

“He wasn’t coming for me.”

Keith looked up. “What?”

“He didn’t come to kill me. He came to kill you.”

“Y-yeah?”

“Why did you tell me to run? If he was there for you, and not for me, why did you tell me to run and then try to attack him? Shouldn’t _you _have been the one running?”

Keith’s mouth opened and closed like a goldfish. “Uh—yeah—I guess so.”

“So… why?”

Keith blinked. He hadn’t really considered that. He’d just done it. Instinctively. “Um—I don’t know. I mean—well—even—even if they _weren’t_coming for you, you could still get caught in the crossfire. And—I didn’t want for that to happen. They were _my_problem. I didn’t want you to get hurt while I dealt with them, and/or got killed.”

“Why? I think I’ve made it clear that I don’t like you.”

“Well—y-yeah. Um…” Keith gulped. “I mean. We need you. You’re the pilot of the Atlas. We’re not going to get far without you. Plus— I can’t just let someone die because they don’t like me. That—that’s not a good thing to do. And, like—paladins are supposed to protect people, right?”

“Yes, but you…” Allura bit her lip. “Well, you’re Galra,” she said bluntly.

Keith looked down at the ground. “Um. Maybe. If other-Keith was right. I mean—probably. Sendak acted like I might be. Like I was part of—part of the Blade. Which would only be possible if I were Galra. I don’t know. I wish—I don’t know, I guess I wish my dad were alive. He could tell me.” Keith rubbed his legs, which were still sending shoots of pain through the rest of him, even though he wasn’t walking on them. “I—I’m not going to be like the rest of the Galra. If I am Galra, I mean.”

Allura raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Oh?”

Keith took in a deep breath. “Do you know how… _this _happened?” he gestured to the wrecks that were his legs.

“Ah—Shiro told me that a Galra cruiser landed on you.”

Keith nodded with a gulp. “Do you—do you know what happened before that?”

Allura shook her head. “No, I don’t.”

“I rescued about fifteen slaves when the Galra attacked.”

“Shiro told me that.”

“Did he tell you that Sendak caught me and tried to force me to tell him where I’d hidden the slaves? Did he tell you that my leg was injured even before the cruiser landed on it because Sendak shattered my kneecap? Because it made one of my legs shorter than the other, even when the doctors fixed it. Did Shiro tell you that Sendak cracked half of my ribs? Did he tell you that Sendak knocked out a couple of my molars, and they’ll never grow back? Did he tell you that the side of my face was swollen so badly I couldn’t see out of one of my eyes because Sendak backhanded me for trying to bite him? Did he tell you that I’ve got burn scars on my chest, now, from when Sendak used his arm on me?” Keith’s hands clenched and unclenched, hot tears pushing at the corners of his eyes.

Allura shook her head, backing up a little. “No,” she said in a very small voice, “He didn’t tell me that.”

“Yeah, well,” Keith muttered, wiping at his eyes, “Believe me, Allura, I don’t want to be _anything _like Sendak. I’d rather have another Galra cruiser land on me.”

Allura hesitated, her hands fidgeting. “I believe you.”

Keith nodded, trying to struggle to his feet. “We should get moving. If we stay in one place for a while, they’ll catch up to us.”

Allura put a hand on his shoulder, pushing him back down. “No. You won’t make it far, anyway.”

“I can walk, I _can_, I just—”

“It’s not just your legs, Keith, it’s_everything_. The doctors didn’t want you moving much. You shouldn’t even be talking too much—your jaw can’t take it. Stay still.”

Keith’s ears prickled as he heard voices coming down the hall. “Uh—”

“I hear it. Stay here, Keith. I’ll take care of it.”

“But—”

“Keith. _Stay_. Shiro won’t be pleased if you get injured again. And if you do get injured again—” Allura shook her head. “Your body might not be able to take it. And I’d rather not lose the red paladin.”

She disappeared, and Keith slumped against the wall. She’d rather not lose the red paladin. Even after he’d laid everything out in front of her, told her everything that had happened to him, spilled his feelings out—she still didn’t see him as worth anything by himself. No. All he was good for was being the red paladin. She needed him. Otherwise? She wouldn’t care what happened to him.

Somewhere, he heard a shot fired. And then footsteps, echoing down the hallway.


	9. Chapter 9

_Got to get up, got to defend myself, have to find Allura, make sure she’s okay_—

Keith struggled to his feet, slightly wobbly. They had guns, and he had a pair of crutches. He had to catch them by surprise, or they’d kill him. He stood next to the door, waiting… waiting…

The footsteps tapped by, and Keith slumped in relief. He could go find Allura, now. He’d just wait until they were far enough away, and—

Footsteps from further back echoed, and Keith froze. Of course. They had a rear guard. Made sense. If he were organizing a sweep, he’d have a rear guard, too. Just in case.

The footsteps stopped right in front of the door. Keith’s heart was hammering in his chest, and he was sure the thumping was loud enough to hear through the door. The door opened, and Keith swung his crutch.

_Get him before he can raise an alarm_—

Allura caught the crutch as it came towards her head. “We’re on the same side!”

Keith lowered the crutch, breathing heavily. “Sorry—Sorry, I thought you were—I’m sorry. Are you okay? I heard a shot, so—”

“Perfectly tip-top shape,” she replied briskly, “They missed. No harm done. We need to get back to the Garrison before they come back. Can you walk?”

“I—I _think _so.” Keith hobbled a few steps. Pain shot up through his legs. He wondered if it would ever go away. “Ugh. I’ll—I’ll be okay.”

Allura looked as though she would still like to throw him over her shoulder again, but she let him walk on his own, and they slowly made their way back through the tunnels. Shiro was waiting for them there, and he immediately embraced Keith.

“Lance and Pidge and Hunk came back without you, and I was worried that they’d lost you!” Shiro squeezed Keith tightly.

“Ribs!” Keith squeaked as his still-healing ribs twinged with pain, and Shiro immediately released him.

“Sorry, I’m sorry. I was worried—I’m sorry.”

“m okay. Thanks to Allura.”

Shiro gave Allura a surprised look. “Really?”

Allura nodded. “Keith and I had… a talk.”

Shiro’s eyebrows rose even further on his head. “_Really_?”

Allura nodded, looking a little embarrassed. “He’s… not what I was expecting. But… he’ll make a good red paladin, nonetheless.”

Keith wasn’t sure whether he should be insulted or flattered. Shiro looked like Christmas had come early.

“That’s great,” he said warmly, “I’m glad you two made up your differences.”

**_I _**_didn’t have any differences. **She **was the one with the problem_.

“And you’re both safe—what happened?! I only got pieces from the others.”

Keith blinked. “They’re all okay?”

Shiro nodded. “The gunman didn’t get past them. They subdued him relatively easily. But they got lost, and they couldn’t find you.”

Keith swayed slightly on his feet, the exhaustion finally catching up to him as the adrenaline faded with the realization that he was safe, and so were the others. He slumped against Shiro.

“Whoa—hey, bud. Hey. Let’s get you to the doctors. Did you mess up your legs?”

Keith winced. His legs were aching, and pretty badly. But he hadn’t ripped out any stitching, and the bones hadn’t been broken. “Nooooo.”

Shiro gave him an anxious look. “Can you walk?”

“He can walk,” Allura piped up, surprisingly. Keith suddenly felt embarrassed that he’d fallen apart in front of her. She thought he’d make a good red paladin. How would she feel now, now that she’d seen him collapse?

Keith pushed himself off of Shiro, wobbling slightly. “I can walk. I’m just… tired.”

Shiro nodded, his brows drawn together. He hovered by Keith, watching him carefully. Keith would have been irritated, but he was pretty sure he was going to fall over, so he decided to let it slide. Keith hobbled up to the main Garrison, making his way towards the infirmary. _Ooo_. The doctors were going to be _so_mad at him.

He could hear shouting as he passed the main entrance, and he paused, looking towards it. “What’s going on?”

Shiro moved to block his view. “Nothing. Nothing important. I’ll tell you about it later, after you’ve recovered.”

“Shiro?”

“After you’ve recovered,” Shiro repeated firmly.

Keith kept walking. Shiro wouldn’t budge, he knew that. But he had a feeling that all of the shouting outside had something to do with him.

_Life was so much easier when I wasn’t a paladin_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that updates are slow. I'm helping my sister write a thing, and then also I have to keep up with my original works, plus holidays and then also, like, life.


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